MS 2003-20 Alexander Leighton and Jane Murphy oral history

Object Details

Interviewer: Powers, Willow Roberts, 1943-
Creator: Leighton, Alexander H. (Alexander Hamilton), 1908-2007; Murphy, Jane M.
Names: Leighton, Alexander H. (Alexander Hamilton), 1908-2007; Murphy, Jane M.

Topic: Values -- Ethnographic study of; Psychiatric epidemiology; Cultural psychiatry

Interviewer: Powers, Willow Roberts, 1943-
Creator: Leighton, Alexander H. (Alexander Hamilton), 1908-2007; Murphy, Jane M.

Biographical / Historical: In 1948, Dr. Alexander Leighton initiated the "Stirling County Study," a post-war longitudinal study of the distribution and amount of mental illness in a general population, and one of the first to do so within the framework of epidemiology. When Dr. Leighton retired from Harvard in 1975, Dr. Jane Murphy, who had been a member of the study since 1951, assumed directorship of the study. Dr. Murphy and Dr. Leighton also conducted numerous cross-cultural studies of mental illness, keeping anthropological ideas as central ingredients in their research.

Type: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Sound cassettes; Oral history; Interviews; Transcripts; Correspondence; Notes

Citation: MS 2003-20, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Scope and Contents: This collection is comprised of oral history interviews of Dr. Alexander Leighton and Dr. Jane Murphy, conducted by Dr. Willow Powers in 2002 and funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation's Historical Archives Program. The collection includes recordings of the interviews on 5 audiocassettes, interview transcripts, permission forms, correspondence relating to the interview, and background information collected in preparation for the interview.